Translation query

[trubikhina at AOL.COM]

  Hi,
 
 I am translating a review of an early futurist art exhibition for a publication. One of the dismissive descriptions that the author is using is "kiyater," which is the "prostonarodnoe" or criminal slang word for "teatr" (theater). It is used ironically obviously, and such use of "kiyater" can also be encountered in satirical pieces by Teffi or in the actual or stylized speech of Gilyarovsky's criminal characters. What would be a distorted English word that an uneducated person of that time (late 19th-early 20th century) might have used?
 
 Thank you,
 
 
  
 Julia Trubikhina
 
 Assistant Professor of Russian
 Russian Program Coordinator
 Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
 Montclair State University
 Dickson Hall, Room 138
 Montclair, NJ 07043
 
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